EBBA, AL-RASHEED A.

QUIZ NO. 2

1. What are the different forms of precipitation?

o Rain- the most common form, and it occurs when precipitation falls to the Earth as water
droplets. It happens because of coalescence.
o Drizzle- It consists of light water precipitation where liquid water droplets are smaller than
those of rain. This can occur when updrafts in clouds are not strong enough to allow them
to produce rain.
o Glaze or Freezing Rain- This type of freezing rain occurs when water droplets meet a cold
surface. When that happens, the water droplets freeze and form an ice coating around
the surface.
o Sun Shower- A sun shower is a strange meteorological phenomenon in which it rains with
no clouds while the sun is shining. Usually, a sun shower is the consequence of winds
associated with a raining storm a few miles away, bringing raindrops to an area with no
rain clouds.
o Ice Pellets or Sleet- It is a form of precipitation that consists of small balls of ice falling
from the atmosphere. Sometimes, ice pellets can be as big as hailstones.
o Small Hail or Snow Pellets- Snow pellets, also known as ‘graupel’ or ‘soft/small hail,’ is a
precipitation form that occurs when low-temperature water droplets freeze on falling
snowflakes; they gather and form 2-5 millimeters conical or rounded ice particles. Snow
pellets are usually fragile and effortlessly crushed. When they fall onto a hard surface,
they often bounce once, but generally, they tend to break.
o Snow Grains - Snow grains are small-scaled and elongated particles; their diameter is
around 1 millimeter. The properties of this form of precipitation are equal to drizzle.
o Hail- Hail forms in clouds when low-temperature water droplets have contact with CCN
(materials such as dust or dirt in the atmosphere). They can have different ice shapes; hail
sizes range from 5 millimeters to 2-3 centimeters.
o Ice Crystal- The crystals appear to look like fog, with water particles forming as ice. The
shape of ice crystals is like needles, plates, or columns.
o Diamond Dust- The diamond dust forms at temperatures around -40 degrees Celsius;
diamond dust is a ground-level cloud made of ice crystals. It is often referred to as clear-
sky precipitation because it forms under clear skies.
o Virga- Virga appears as a streak of precipitation that falls from the base of a cloud, which
evaporates before it reaches the surface. It happens when falling rain passes through the
dry or warm air.
2. Differentiate or distinguish a cyclone from a typhoon or a hurricane.
Tropical cyclones in the west Pacific are called Typhoons and those in the Atlantic and east Pacific
Ocean are called Hurricanes. It's the longitude that matters. Tropical cyclones in the Northwest
Pacific Ocean west of the International Date Line with sustained winds of (or those that exceed)
74 mph are typhoons and a hurricane is a cyclone that is in the North Atlantic Ocean, or the NE
Pacific Ocean east of the International Date Line, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E, and
with sustained winds that reach or exceed 74 mph. Any mass of air that spirals around a low-
pressure center is referred to as a cyclone. It's a well-organized swarm of thunderstorms
embedded in a whirling mass of air. Typhoons and hurricanes are both tropical cyclones in
general, although their sites differ. The distinction between a hurricane and a typhoon is that
tropical storms in the west Pacific are referred to as Typhoons, while those in the Atlantic and
east Pacific Oceans are referred to as Hurricanes. It is the longitude that is important.

3. What is an anticyclone?

An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined as a large-scale circulation of winds around a

central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and
counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to a cyclone).
Effects of surface-based anticyclones include clearing skies as well as cooler, drier air. Fog can
also form overnight within a region of higher pressure. Mid-tropospheric systems, such as the
subtropical ridge, deflect tropical cyclones around their periphery and cause a temperature
inversion inhibiting free convection near their center, building up surface-based haze under their
base. It is a weather system with high atmospheric pressure at its center, around which air slowly
circulates in a clockwise (northern hemisphere) or counterclockwise (southern hemisphere)
direction. Anticyclones are associated with calm, fine weather.

4. What is a monsoon?
A monsoon is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in
precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and
precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical Convergence Zone
between its limits to the north and south of the equator. Usually, the term monsoon is used to
refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry
phase. The term is also sometimes used to describe locally heavy but short-term rains. A
monsoon is a seasonal change in the direction of the prevailing, or strongest, winds of a region.
Monsoons cause wet and dry seasons throughout much of the tropics. Monsoons are most often
associated with the Indian Ocean. Monsoons always blow from cold to warm regions.
5. Describe the different methods of recording rainfall
1. Non-Recording Rain Gauge- Non-recording type rain gauges are the simple forms of rain
gauges that essentially collect the rainfall but do not record the quantity of the collected
rainfall.The non-recording rain gauge generally consists of a circular collecting area of
about 12.7cm in diameter used for collecting the rainfall.The circular collecting area is
connected to a funnel.The objective of providing the funnel is to discharge the collected
rainwater to the receiving vessel.The most commonly used non-recording rain gauge is
Symon’s rain gauge.
2. Recording Rain Gauge- Recording raingauges give a permanent automatic record of
rainfall. It has a mechanical arrangement by which the total amount of rainfall since the
start of record gets automatically recorded on a graph paper. It produces a plot of
cumulative rainfall vs time (mass curve of rainfall). These rain gauges are also called
integrating raingauges since they record cumulative rainfall.

Types of Recording Rain Gauge:

a. Tipping Bucket Type- It is the type of rain gauge that consists of a pair of bucket
arrangement that is arranged in such a way that when 0.25mm of rain falls in one
bucket, it tips automatically bringing the other bucket in position.
b. Weighing Bucket Type- The weighing bucket-type rain gauge consists of an
arrangement of a bucket mounted on a weighing scale.
c. Natural Syphon Type (Float Type)- It is also commonly referred to as the natural
siphon type rain gauge. This type of rain gauge consists of a funnel shaped
collector that leads to the floating chamber.
6. Explain the different methods of determining the average rainfall over a catchment due to a
storm.
1. Arithmetic Mean – This technique calculates areal precipitation using the arithmetic mean of
all the point or areal measurements considered in the analysis. When the area of the basin is less
than 500 km2 this method implies summing up of all the rainfall values from all the rain gauging
stations and then dividing it by the number of stations in that basin. The method becomes very
clear using a tabular forra. This method gives accurate results if the stations are uniformly
distributed over the area. There should not be much variation in the rainfall values of the stations
under consideration.
2. Iso-Hyetal Method- This is a graphical technique which involves drawing estimated lines of
equal rainfall over an area based on point measurements. The magnitude and extent of the
resultant rainfall areas of coverage are then considered versus the area in question in order to
estimate the areal precipitation value. As contours are lines joining points of equal height, iso-
hyetes are the Knes joining the points of equal depth of precipitation. The properties of iso-
hyetes are like that of contours.
3. Thiessen Polygon - This is another graphical technique which calculates station weights based
on the relative areas of each measurement station in the Thiessen polygon network. The
individual weights are multiplied by the station observation and the values are summed to obtain
the areal average precipitation. A method of assigning a real significance to point rainfall values.
Perpendicular bisectors are constructed to the lines joining each measuring station with those
immediately surrounding it. These bisectors form a series of polygons, each polygon containing
one station.
4. Distance Weighting/Gridded - This is another station weighting technique. A grid of point
estimates is made based on a distance weighting scheme. Each observed point value is given a
unique weight for each grid point based on the distance from the grid point in question. The grid
point precipitation value is calculated based on the sum of the individual station weight
multiplied by observed station value. Once the grid points have all been estimated they are
summed, and the sum is divided by the number of grid points to obtain the areal average
precipitation.

5. MAPX - This is a NWS-specific gridded technique. Areal runoff zone precipitation estimates are
made using the 4 x 4 km WSR-88D 1-hourly gridded precipitation estimates. The arithmetic mean
calculation technique is used to average the grid point estimates.

6. Index Stations - In some areas of the country (primarily mountain